Stephen Horvath | Biography

Stephen Horvath - engineer, inventor and self-educated scientist has devoted most of his life
to researching fusion with a single purpose in mind: solving the world's energy needs through
muon-catalysed fusion.

Born in Hungary in 1929, Stephen was a bright and inquisitive child who was always fascinated
by how things worked, particularly engines. He read voraciously and was privately schooled
before studying general aeronautical engineering at Budapest University.

World War II brought Stephen's university days to an abrupt end when he fled to Austria and
immigrated to Australia under a refugee programme in 1949.

Once in Australia, Stephen re-commenced his studies via correspondence from the British Institute
of Engineering Technology. During the early 1950s, he began working in a series of factories
where his technical prowess and inventiveness quickly became apparent. He devoted his time to
creating various devices to facilitate tasks and to improve numerous pieces of mass machinery.

It didn't take long for one of Stephen's BIET teachers to recommend him to the De Havilland Aircraft
Corporation in 1956 where he began work as an engineer converting the Sea Venom Jet Fighter into a
two-seat trainer for the Australian Navy.

In 1959, Stephen was appointed Senior Design Engineer at Borg Warner where he was responsible for
tooling, assembly and testing of the BW35 Automatic Transmission.

Throughout this period, Stephen was often frustrated by the fact it was difficult to source adequate
power for the engines and machines he designed. He continued to read and further his knowledge in
the fields of nuclear physics and energy - where his true interest lay.

In 1970/71 Stephen established his own design consultancy, Engineering Design & Development (ED&D),
which was a contract design firm responsible for many, many inventions including production tooling
for the British Motor Corporation (BMC); tooling for the first plastic agitator in washing machines
and a spaghetti machine. Profits from ED&D were ploughed into Stephen's fusion research, which was
gaining momentum.

During 1974, Stephen set up Access Control Systems, once again with the goal of exploiting his
inventiveness to raise sufficient capital to further his fusion concept. He developed an ingenious
electronic access control system which is now used in many banks and high security facilities
worldwide and which is essentially the great grandfather of the plastic cards we swipe today to
open doors, access lifts and so on.

In 1978, Stephen sold Access Control Systems and founded Horvath Energy Australia (HEA), a business
tasked with engineering his muon-catalysed fusion dream. By now, Stephen's love of science had
well and truly overcome his desire to work as an engineer and HEA marked the beginning of a more
than 20 year full-time research journey which would take Stephen around the world and put him in
touch with some of the brightest minds in the energy field.

By 1979, Stephen had developed the prototype for a car powered through fusion-enhanced hydrogen burn
as part of his ongoing research into alternative fuel sources. When the then Queensland Premier,
Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen learned of the project, he invited Stephen to display his work publicly.
Unfortunately, Sir Joh's foresight to bring about a pollution free hydrogen economy has not eventuated
as yet.

As a result, an announcement was made which put Stephen in an awkward position, since he knew his
work was incomplete and he had never wanted to promote the "hydrogen car" project as a finished
product.

Nature is not very kind to inventors and entrepreneurs, not all of the innovative ideas have come
to fruition - although each one has deepened Stephen's knowledge and understanding of his ultimate
scientific goal - to unlock the secret to releasing energy via sustained muon-catalysed fusion.

Another catalyst for the next stage of Stephen's muon-catalysed fusion work was a fortunate
introduction, soon after establishing HEA, to Sir Ernest Titterton, then Foundation Professor to
the Chair of Nuclear Physics at Australian National University.

Sir Ernest was one of the key scientists on the Manhattan Project, which produced the first atom
bomb and he became Stephen's mentor, teaching him how to develop nuclear systems and sharing
Stephen's belief that nature should take priority over force - a philosophy Stephen has applied
throughout his career and which is key to his muon-catalysed fusion research.

Stephen's friendship with Sir Ernest Titterton was a meeting of the minds, and a forum for sharing
ideas and it continued until Sir Ernest's death on 8 February 1990.

The relationship gave rise to a number of opportunities including an invitation for Stephen to test
his prototype reactor at a secure facility at the UK Atomic Research Establishment at Harwell.

In late 1983, Stephen travelled extensively in the USA, discussing his work with the energy world's
elite at Los Alamos, German Town (Department of Defence) and in early 1988 New Mexico
(Department of Energy); as well as meeting with Vice President George Bush, his energy advisors
from the Departments of Energy and Defence to talk about his work.

In 1989, after extensive discussions with General Electric, in Schenectady, New York, Stephen was
invited to secretly test the second prototype reactor at their facility.

The next step for Stephen was to design an enhanced reactor. In 1998, he formed Star Energy as
the patent holder and developer of the final stage of the fusion development. He began assembling
the requisite testing equipment and enlarged system to produce a commercial device to demonstrate
energy release via muon-catalysed fusion.

In 2004, Star Energy changed its name to Star Scientific and Stephen entered the final testing
phase for his muon-catalysed fusion generator. While many of Stephen's contemporaries have headed
in different directions, abandoning muon-catalysed fusion as too difficult and riddled with
unsurmountable problems, Stephen Horvath has continued on. His beliefs in nature, in the science
and in himself have kept him utterly focused on his ultimate goal and he firmly believes muon-catalysed
fusion will herald the beginning of a new era for our planet.

Stephen has been married for 60 years and has two children, Stephen (Jnr) and Andrew, both of whom
have been closely involved with the fusion project since childhood.